If you don’t have an optimized website for mobile phones, you are making it difficult for your donors to love you. Playing hard to get doesn’t work on the internet. There are too many suitors for your donors to choose from. Take a look at your Google Analytics Dashboard and click on “Sessions by Device.” I bet the majority of people who have visited your website have done so from the mobile phone.
If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, a high percentage of your potential donors will move on to the next link in their search results without hesitation. It is not that they don’t care about your cause; they want the process of giving to be easy. They want to fall in love with you at first sight. So you need to make sure you bring your “A-game” to the party and capture their attention right from the very first glance on their phone.
You can tell if your donors are being turned off by what is known as the bounce rate in Google Analytics. The bounce rate is the number of people who only look at a single page on your website. The higher the bounce rate, the less appealing to their needs and wants you have appeared. If your website is not speaking to your donor’s love language, or it is difficult for them to see what you have to offer, we strongly suggest you invest in giving it a makeover and wooing their mobile to your side.
What your donors want from a website.
Focusing on your mobile appearance doesn’t mean your desktop computer face is ignored. Most website designs are built with multiple screens in mind but thinking about how your mobile face looks and functions first will reduce your bounce rate. Here are my two top tips for gaining your potential donors’ attention via their phone.
- Keep the design simple, with user-friendly navigation with content that is easy to read and interesting.
- Keep your website content “skimmable.” Mobile means on the move, your donors are short on time and will skim over your content. Put key-message in the headlines and sub-headings. Have a clear call to action that is easy for them to complete.
Call to Actions that work
A call to action is a statement or phrase that encourages your donor to act without hesitation, don’t wait, donate now. Ways to encourage them “to act” include:
- Create a form that is quick and easy to fill out. Be sure to include options for autofill, e.g., drop-down address completion and amounts to donate. Remember, most will be typing or sweeping with one finger and one eye on the screen.
- Keep what they want centrally focused. When someone visits your website, they are motivated by three things; find something, do something, or learn more about something.
- Optimize your images. Keep the image files small and make sure your photos tell a story. Pages that are slow to load because the image files are too large – bounce. Pictures that are flat and without context – bounce. Note – if your images aren’t optimized before being uploaded to your website, plugins like Short Pixel will easily do it for you.
Beginning and maintaining a relationship with your donor is all about paying attention to their needs and making it as easy as possible for them to love you. In the online world, how you present yourself through your website is a significant deal-breaker.